Terminal apparatus, character recognition system, and character recognition method

ABSTRACT

A personal information separation unit separates a document image containing personal information into a personal information image containing the personal information and a general information image that does not contain the personal information on the basis of the document image, and transmits the general information image to a cloud server. A recognition result integration unit receives a general recognition result that is the recognition result of the character recognition processing for the general information image from the cloud server, and acquires a target recognition result that is the recognition result of the character recognition processing for the document image in accordance with the general recognition result and the information based on the personal information image.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority from Japanese applicationJP2019-105432, filed on Jun. 5, 2019, the contents of which is herebyincorporated by reference into this application.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to a terminal apparatus, a character recognitionsystem, and a character recognition method.

Due to the spread of machine learning technology, the automation ofoperations that have been performed by people is progressing. Forexample, the operation of reading a document entered in an image hasbeen automated by utilizing character recognition processing using themachine learning technology.

In general, a computer with high computing performance including a GPU(Graphics Processing Unit) and the like is necessary in order to performthe character recognition processing using machine learning. However, inmany cases, it is difficult to introduce a computer with high computingperformance in terms of cost. Therefore, a character recognition systemin which a low-cost edge terminal is introduced so that a document imageacquired at the edge terminal is transmitted to a cloud server with highcomputing performance and the character recognition processing isperformed on the cloud server has been considered.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2016-21088discloses an electronic document generation system including a firstapparatus, and a second apparatus having higher computing performancethan the first apparatus. In the electronic document generation system,the first apparatus extracts image data of an area in which charactersare entered from the document image and transmits the image data to thesecond apparatus, and the second apparatus performs characterrecognition processing for the image data.

SUMMARY

The technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2016-21088 does not take security relating to secret information such aspersonal information into consideration. Therefore, when secretinformation such as personal information is entered in the documentimage, the image data in which the secret information is entered isdirectly transmitted to the second apparatus. Thus, there has been aproblem in that the risk of the secret information leaking increases.

An object of this disclosure is to provide a terminal apparatus, acharacter recognition system, and a character recognition methodenabling highly-accurate character recognition processing to beperformed at low cost and capable of reducing the risk of secretinformation leaking.

A terminal apparatus according to one aspect of this disclosure is aterminal apparatus coupled to a character recognition processingapparatus, the character recognition processing apparatus configured toperform character recognition processing on an image and transmit arecognition result of the character recognition processing, the terminalapparatus including: a separation unit configured to separate the targetimage containing secret information into a secret information imagecontaining the secret information and a general information image thatdoes not contain the secret information on basis of the target image,and transmit the general information image to the character recognitionprocessing apparatus; and an integration unit configured to receive ageneral recognition result that is a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing for the general information image from thecharacter recognition processing apparatus, and acquire a targetrecognition result that is a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing for the target image in accordance with thegeneral recognition result and information based on the secretinformation image.

According to the present invention, the highly-accurate characterrecognition processing can be performed at low cost and the risk of thesecret information leaking can be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a character recognition system according to anembodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of a document image;

FIG. 3 illustrates a general information image and a personalinformation image;

FIG. 4 illustrates one example of an edited image;

FIG. 5 illustrates hardware configurations of an edge terminal;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of personalinformation separation processing executed by a personal informationseparation unit;

FIG. 7 shows one example of item layout definition information;

FIG. 8 illustrates one example of an entering format for entering theitem layout definition information in the document image;

FIG. 9 shows one example of item location information;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of personalinformation editing processing executed by a personal informationediting unit;

FIG. 11 shows one example of information for restoration;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of personalinformation restoration processing executed by a personal informationrestoration unit; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of recognitionresult integration processing executed by a recognition resultintegration unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

An embodiment of this disclosure is described below with reference tothe drawings. Elements with the same functions may be denoted by thesame reference characters and the description thereof may be omittedbelow.

FIG. 1 illustrates a character recognition system according toEmbodiment 1 of this disclosure. A character recognition system 1illustrated in FIG. 1 is a system that performs processing forperforming character recognition of an image (image data) in whichcharacters are entered by sharing the processing by a plurality ofcomputers, and includes an edge terminal 100 and a cloud server 200. Theedge terminal 100 and the cloud server 200 are computers, for example.The edge terminal 100 and the cloud server 200 are coupled to each otherover a communication network (not shown). The communication networkincludes a LAN (Local Area Network) and the internet. The coupling stateof the edge terminal 100 and the cloud server 200 with respect to thecommunication network may be wired coupling or wireless coupling. Asecurity technology such as encryption may be applied to thecommunication between the edge terminal 100 and the cloud server 200over the communication network.

The edge terminal 100 is a terminal apparatus that transmits an imagecontaining characters to the cloud server 200 and receives therecognition result of the character recognition processing from thecloud server 200. The cloud server 200 is a character recognitionprocessing apparatus that performs the character recognition processingon the image transmitted from the edge terminal 100 and transmits therecognition result of the character recognition processing to the edgeterminal 100.

Specifically, the edge terminal 100 includes an input unit 101, apersonal information separation unit 102, a personal information editingunit 103, a personal information restoration unit 105, a recognitionresult integration unit 106, and an output unit 107. Specifically, thecloud server 200 includes a character recognition unit 104.

The input unit 101 reads a document image 111 serving as a target imageon which the character recognition processing is to be performed, andoutputs the document image 111. The document image 111 may be an imageacquired by an input apparatus 502 (see FIG. 5) or may be an imagestored in a secondary storage apparatus 505 (see FIG. 5) or an externalstorage apparatus (not shown). The document image 111 may be a pluralityof images.

Secret information that is information to be kept secret from a thirdperson is entered in the document image 111. In this embodiment, thesecret information is personal information relating to an individualsuch as a creator of the document shown in the document image 111, butthe secret information is not limited to personal information. In thisembodiment, item contents that are information corresponding to one of aplurality of predefined items are entered in the document image 111, andpersonal information is entered in at least one of the item contents.

FIG. 2 illustrates one example of the document image 111. The documentimage 111 illustrated in FIG. 2 is an image showing an invoice. In thedocument image 111, items such as “price”, “name”, and “transferdestination” are defined, and item contents 111 a to 111 c correspondingto those items are entered. Personal information such as “Mr. TaroTokyo, OO Co., Ltd.” is entered in the item contents 111 b correspondingto the item “name”. In FIG. 2, the document image 111 shows an invoice,but the document shown in the document image 111 is not limited to aninvoice.

The description returns to FIG. 1. The personal information separationunit 102 is a separation unit that executes personal informationseparation processing for separating the document image 111 from theinput unit 101 into a general information image 112 that does notcontain personal information, and a personal information image 113containing personal information.

Specifically, the personal information separation unit 102 specifies apersonal information entering area in the document image 111 in whichthe personal information is entered on the basis of the document image111, generates the image showing the personal information entering areaas the personal information image 113 that is secret image informationcontaining secret information, and generates an image obtained bycutting out the personal information entering area from the documentimage 111 as the general information image 112 that does not containsecret information. The personal information separation unit 102 outputsthe personal information image 113 to the personal information editingunit 103, and transmits the general information image 112 to the cloudserver 200. The personal information separation unit 102 generates itemlocation information 121 indicating the location of the personalinformation entering area in the document image 111 and outputs the itemlocation information 121 to the recognition result integration unit 106.A more detailed description of the personal information separationprocessing performed by the personal information separation unit 102 isdescribed below with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 3 illustrates one example of the general information image 112 andthe personal information image 113. In the example of FIG. 3, thegeneral information image 112 is an image obtained by cutting out thearea in which the item contents 111 b corresponding to the item “name”is entered from the document image 111 as the personal informationentering area. The personal information image 113 is an image showingthe area in which the item contents 111 b are entered as the personalinformation entering area.

The description returns to FIG. 1. The personal information editing unit103 is an editing unit that executes personal information editingprocessing for generating an edited image 114 obtained by editing thepersonal information image 113 output from the personal informationseparation unit 102 and transmitting the edited image 114 to the cloudserver 200. The personal information editing unit 103 generatesinformation for restoration 122 for restoring the personal informationand outputs the information for restoration 122 to the personalinformation restoration unit 105 in the personal information editingprocessing.

In this embodiment, the editing of the personal information imageincludes separating the personal information image to a plurality ofcharacter images indicating a plurality of characters contained in thepersonal information image. At this time, the personal informationediting unit 103 may manage the plurality of character images byarranging the plurality of character images in a random order. Forexample, the personal information editing unit 103 may transmit theplurality of character images to the cloud server 200 in a random order.The personal information editing unit 103 may configure file names ofthe plurality of character images by random character strings.

FIG. 4 illustrates one example of the edited image 114. In FIG. 4, aplurality of character images 114 a showing the characters contained inthe personal information image 113 illustrated in FIG. 3 are illustratedas the edited image 114, and the character images 114 a are managed in arandom order.

The description returns to FIG. 1. The character recognition unit 104 ofthe cloud server 200 receives the general information image 112 and theedited image 114 from the edge terminal 100, and separately executes thecharacter recognition processing for the general information image 112and the edited image 114. Then, the character recognition unit 104transmits the recognition result of the character recognition processingfor the general information image 112 to the edge terminal 100 as ageneral recognition result 116, and transmits the recognition result ofthe character recognition processing for the edited image 114 to theedge terminal 100 as an editing recognition result 115.

The character recognition processing includes main processing foractually recognizing the characters, preprocessing performed before themain processing, and postprocessing performed after the main processing.The preprocessing is processing of binarizing the images (the generalinformation image 112 and the edited image 114) for recognizing thecharacters and processing of removing lines such as the enclosing linesin the image, for example. The postprocessing is processing forrestoring the lines removed in the preprocessing into the processingresult of the main processing, for example.

The specific method of the character recognition processing is notparticularly limited, but the character recognition processing using themachine learning and the like described in “Chris Tensmeyer and TonyMartinez, “Document Image Binarization with Fully Convolutional NeuralNetworks”, Proceedings of ICDAR 2017, pp. 99-104, 2017.”, for examplecan be used. The character recognition processing does not necessarilyneed to use machine learning.

The personal information restoration unit 105 of the edge terminal 100is a restoration unit that executes personal information restorationprocessing for acquiring the secret recognition result of therecognition result of the character recognition processing for thepersonal information image 113 and outputting the secret recognitionresult as restored personal information 117 on the basis of the editingrecognition result 115 from the character recognition unit 104 and theinformation for restoration 122 from the personal information editingunit 103. The detailed description of the personal informationrestoration processing performed by the personal information restorationunit 105 is described below with reference to FIG. 12.

The recognition result integration unit 106 is an integration unit thatexecutes integration processing for generating a target recognitionresult that is the recognition result of the character recognitionprocessing for the original document image 111 and outputting the targetrecognition result as a document recognition result 118 on the basis ofthe item location information 121 from the personal informationseparation unit 102, the general recognition result 116 from thecharacter recognition unit 104, and the restored personal information117 from the personal information restoration unit 105. The detaileddescription of the integration processing performed by the recognitionresult integration unit 106 is described below with reference to FIG.13.

The output unit 107 outputs the document recognition result 118 from therecognition result integration unit 106.

FIG. 5 illustrates hardware configurations of the edge terminal 100. Theedge terminal 100 illustrated in FIG. 5 includes a processor 501, aninput apparatus 502, an output apparatus 503, a main storage apparatus504, a secondary storage apparatus 505, and a network interface 506 asthe hardware configurations. The hardware configurations 501 to 506 arecoupled to each other over an internal bus, for example. Oneconfiguration is illustrated for each of the hardware configurations 501to 506 in FIG. 5, but a plurality of configurations may be used. Somefunctions of the edge terminal 100 may be shared by other computers andstorage apparatuses coupled to the edge terminal 100 in a direct manneror over the communication network.

The processor 501 reads programs stored in the main storage apparatus504, and realizes the input unit 101, the personal informationseparation unit 102, the personal information editing unit 103, thepersonal information restoration unit 105, the recognition resultintegration unit 106, and the output unit 107 illustrated in FIG. 1 byexecuting the read programs.

The input apparatus 502 is an apparatus for inputting data to the edgeterminal 100. The input apparatus 502 includes a device for operating acomputer such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a touch panel, and a devicefor acquiring image data such as a scanner, a digital camera, and asmartphone.

The output apparatus 503 is an apparatus that outputs an input screenfor inputting data and various information such as the processingresult. The output apparatus 503 includes a touch panel and a display,for example.

The main storage apparatus 504 stores therein a program that regulatesthe operation of the processor 501, information used by the processor501 when the program is executed, and the like. The main storageapparatus 504 includes a work area temporarily used by the program. Themain storage apparatus 504 includes a memory, for example.

In this embodiment, the main storage apparatus 504 stores therein apersonal information separation program 511, a personal informationediting program 512, a personal information restoration program 513, anda recognition result integration program 514 as programs that regulatethe operation of the processor 501. The personal information separationprogram 511, the personal information editing program 512, the personalinformation restoration program 513, and the recognition resultintegration program 514 correspond to the personal informationseparation unit 102, the personal information editing unit 103, thepersonal information restoration unit 105, and the recognition resultintegration unit 106 illustrated in FIG. 1, and are executed by theprocessor 501, to thereby realize the correspond configurations. Themain storage apparatus 504 stores the item location information 121 andthe information for restoration 122 therein.

The secondary storage apparatus 505 stores data therein. The secondarystorage apparatus 505 is an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and an SSD (SolidState Drive), for example. Note that at least some of the programs andinformation stored in the main storage apparatus 504 may be stored inthe secondary storage apparatus 505. In this case, the processor 501reads programs and information from the secondary storage apparatus 505and loads the programs and information to the main storage apparatus504, to thereby use the programs and information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of the personalinformation separation processing executed by the personal informationseparation unit 102 of the edge terminal 100.

In Step S601, the personal information separation unit 102 reads thedocument image 111 from the input unit 101.

In Step S602, the personal information separation unit 102 checkswhether item layout definition information that is definitioninformation indicating the location of the personal information enteringarea in the document image 111 in which the personal information isentered is contained in the document image 111. Specifically, the itemlayout definition information indicates the location of the item area inwhich the item contents of the item are entered, and a personalinformation flag indicating whether personal information is contained inthe item contents for each item. The item layout definition informationmay be entered in the document image 111 by being encoded into apredetermined format.

FIG. 7 shows one example of the item layout definition information. Itemlayout definition information 700 shown in FIG. 7 includes an item name701, item-entered coordinates 702, and a personal information flag 703.The item name 701 is a field that stores therein item names foridentifying the items. The item-entered coordinates 702 are a field thatstores therein location information indicating the locations of the itemareas in which the item contents of the items identified by the itemnames are entered. The personal information flag 703 is a field thatstores therein personal information flags indicating whether personalinformation is contained in the item contents.

In this embodiment, the item area has a rectangular shape, and thelocation information in the item area is expressed by coordinates on theupper left end and the lower right end of the item area. Note that thelocation information in the item area is not limited to this example,and may be expressed by predetermined coordinates (coordinates on theupper left end and the like) and the size of the item area (vertical andhorizontal lengths, the length of the diagonal line, or the like), forexample. The item area is not limited to a rectangular shape, and may beother shapes such as a round shape. The personal information flagindicates a “circle mark (◯)” when the item contents contain personalinformation, and indicates a “cross mark (X)” when the item contents donot contain personal information.

In the example in FIG. 7, the item area in which the item contents withthe item “name” corresponding to the personal information flagindicating the “circle mark” is entered is the personal informationentering area. Information that is defined as the personal informationcan be selected by configuring the value of the personal informationflag, as appropriate.

FIG. 8 illustrates one example of an entering format for entering theitem layout definition information in the document image 111. In theexample in FIG. 8, the item layout definition information is entered inthe document image 111 by being encoded to a barcode 801. In thisexample, the personal information separation unit 102 checks whether thebarcode 801 is entered in the document image 111. When the barcode 801is entered, the personal information separation unit 102 reads thebarcode 801 and checks whether the read barcode 801 indicates the itemlayout definition information. Note that the entering format of the itemlayout definition information is not limited to this example. The itemlayout definition information may be encoded in a format other than atwo-dimensional code such as the barcode 801, for example, or may beentered as character information without being encoded.

The description returns to FIG. 6. The personal information separationunit 102 executes the processing of Step S603 when the document image111 contains the item layout definition information, and executes theprocessing of Step S604 when the document image 111 does not contain theitem layout definition information.

In Step S603, the personal information separation unit 102 reads theitem layout definition information from the document image 111, andproceeds to the processing of Step S605.

Meanwhile, in Step S604, the personal information separation unit 102compares the document image 111 and a reference image with each otherand acquires the item layout definition information. The reference imageis an image in which the location of the item contents that are enteredinformation is known, and the item layout definition informationrelating to the reference image, for example, is stored in advance inthe main storage apparatus 504, the secondary storage apparatus 505 orso forth. The reference image may be an image showing a template of thedocument shown by the document image 111 (an invoice and the like).

The specific method for the processing of acquiring the item layoutdefinition information by comparing the document image 111 and thereference image with each other is not particularly limited, but thetechnology described in “Hiroyuki Naruse et al., “A StructureRecognition Method of Table-Form Documents on the Basis of theInformation of Line Segments”, The transactions of the Institute ofElectronics, Information and Communication Engineers, pp. 1372-1385,1992.” and the like can be applied, for example. The personalinformation separation unit 102 may perform the character recognitionprocessing for the document image 111, acquire the item contents fromthe recognition result, and acquire the item layout information from thecoordinates of the item contents. In this case, the characterrecognition processing performed by the personal information separationunit 102 only needs to have an accuracy with which the coordinates ofthe item contents can be grasped, and hence the accuracy may be lowerthan that of the character recognition processing performed by thecharacter recognition unit 104 of the cloud server 200.

When Step S603 or S604 ends, the processing proceeds to Step S605. InStep S605, the personal information separation unit 102 specifies thepersonal information entering area that is the item area in the documentimage 111 containing the personal information and the location thereofon the basis of the item layout definition information.

In Step S606, the personal information separation unit 102 separates thedocument image 111 into the general information image 112 and thepersonal information image 113 on the basis of the specified location ofthe personal information entering area. Specifically, the personalinformation separation unit 102 cuts out the personal informationentering area in the specified location from the document image 111,generates the image showing the cut out personal information enteringarea to be the personal information image 113, and generates theremaining image after the personal information entering area is cut outfrom the document image 111 as the general information image 112.

In Step S607, the personal information separation unit 102 generates theitem location information 121 on the basis of the item layout definitioninformation. Specific examples of the item location information 121 aredescribed below with reference to FIG. 9.

In Step S608, the personal information separation unit 102 transmits thegeneral information image 112 to the cloud server 200, outputs thepersonal information image 113 to the personal information editing unit103, and outputs the item location information 121 to the recognitionresult integration unit 106, and thereby end the processing.

FIG. 9 shows one example of the item location information 121 generatedby the personal information separation unit 102 in Step S607. The itemlocation information 121 shown in FIG. 9 includes an image number 901,an item number 902, an item name 903, character string coordinates 904,and an image name 905 after separation.

The image number 901 is a field that stores therein the image numbersthat are identification information for identifying the document image111. The item number 902 is a field that stores therein the item numbersthat are identification information for identifying the items. The itemname 903 is a field that stores the item names therein.

The character string coordinates 904 are a field that stores thereinlocation information indicating the locations of the item areas in whichthe item contents of the items identified by the item numbers areentered in the document image 111. The image name 905 after separationis a field that stores therein the image names after separation foridentifying the images in which the item contents of the itemsidentified by the item numbers are entered out of the images afterseparation (the general information image 112 and the personalinformation image 113).

In the example of the drawing, the image name after separation is a filename of the image after separation, and specifically indicates “theoriginal image number_the image number after separation.png”. The imagenumber after separation in the image name after separation indicates “1”for the case of the general information image 112, and indicates “2” forthe case of the personal information image 113. Therefore, for example,the image name after separation is “1_1.png” for the case of the generalinformation image 112 separated from the document image 111 of whichoriginal image number is “1”, and is “2_2.png” for the case of thepersonal information image 113 separated from the document image 111 ofwhich original image number is “2”. Note that, although the generalinformation image 112 and the personal information image 113 are imagesin a PNG format, the general information image 112 and the personalinformation image 113 may be images in other formats. The generalinformation image 112 and the personal information image 113 may beimages in different formats.

Note that the number and types of the fields in the item locationinformation 121 in FIG. 9 are merely examples, and can be changed, asappropriate, if necessary. For example, it is possible to identify theitem contents with only one of the item number and the item name, andone of the item number 902 and the item name 903 is not necessarilyneeded.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of the personalinformation editing processing executed by the personal informationediting unit 103 of the edge terminal 100.

In Step S1001, the personal information editing unit 103 reads thepersonal information image 113 output from the personal informationseparation unit 102.

In Step S1002, the personal information editing unit 103 generates aplurality of character images showing a plurality of characterscontained in the personal information image 113 from the personalinformation image 113 as the edited image 114.

In Step S1003, the personal information editing unit 103 arranges theplurality of character images in a random order.

In Step S1004, the personal information editing unit 103 generatesinformation indicating the relationship between the personal informationimage 113 before editing and the plurality of character images afterediting as the information for restoration 122.

In Step S1005, the personal information editing unit 103 transmits theplurality of character images to the cloud server 200 in the orderarranged in Step S1003, and outputs the information for restoration tothe personal information restoration unit 105, to thereby end theprocessing. Note that the personal information editing unit 103 maysuccessively or intermittently transmit the plurality of characterimages.

FIG. 11 shows one example of the information for restoration 122generated by the personal information editing unit 103 in Step S1004.The information for restoration 122 shown in FIG. 11 includes an imagename after separation 1101, a character order number 1102 forrestoration, and an image name 1103 after editing.

The image name after separation 1101 is a field that stores thereinimage names after separation for identifying the personal informationimages 113. The character order number 1102 for restoration is a fieldthat stores therein character order numbers for restoration indicatingthe arrangement order of the characters shown by the plurality ofcharacter images in the personal information image 113. The image name1103 after editing is a field that stores therein image names afterediting for identifying the character images. In the example of thedrawing, the image name after editing indicates “the original imagenumber_the image number after separation_the character order number forrestoration.png”. Therefore, for example, the image name afterseparation is “1_2_1.png” when the image name after separation indicatesthe first character contained in the personal information image 113separated from the document image 111 of which original image number is“1”, and is “2_2_3.png” when the image name after separation indicatesthe third character of the personal information contained in thepersonal information image 113 separated from the document image 111 ofwhich original image number is “2”.

Note that the image name after editing is configured by the personalinformation editing unit 103. The image name after editing is notlimited to the abovementioned example. For example, in the example ofFIG. 11, the image name after editing includes the original imagenumber, the image number after separation, and the character ordernumber for restoration, but those numbers do not necessarily need to beincluded. The image name after editing may be replaced with a characterstring (including a random number) in which at least one (for example,the character order number for restoration) of those numbers is random,for example. The number and types of the field of the information forrestoration 122 can be changed, as appropriate, if necessary.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of the personalinformation restoration processing executed by the personal informationrestoration unit 105 of the edge terminal 100.

In Step S1201, the personal information restoration unit 105 receives aplurality of character recognition results that are recognition resultsof the plurality of character images from the cloud server 200 as theediting recognition results 115.

In Step S1202, the personal information restoration unit 105 reads theinformation for restoration 122 from the personal information editingunit 103.

In Step S1203, the personal information restoration unit 105 acquiresthe restored personal information 117 by restoring the personalinformation by arranging and integrating the plurality of charactersindicated by the plurality of character recognition results on the basisof the information for restoration 122.

In Step S1204, the personal information restoration unit 105 outputs therestored personal information 117.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for illustrating one example of recognitionresult integration processing executed by the recognition resultintegration unit 106 of the edge terminal 100.

In Step S1301, the recognition result integration unit 106 reads therestored personal information 117 from the personal informationrestoration unit 105.

In Step S1302, the recognition result integration unit 106 receives thegeneral recognition result 116 from the cloud server 200.

In Step S1303, the recognition result integration unit 106 reads theitem location information 121 from the personal information separationunit 102.

In Step S1304, the recognition result integration unit 106 acquires thedocument recognition result 118 as the recognition result of thecharacter recognition processing for the document image 111 byintegrating the general recognition result 116 and the restored personalinformation 117 on the basis of the item location information 121. Forexample, the recognition result integration unit 106 integrates thegeneral recognition result 116 and the restored personal information 117by incorporating the restored personal information 117 into the locationcorresponding to the location of the item area at which the image nameafter separation indicates the personal information image 113 in thegeneral recognition result 116 on the basis of the item locationinformation 121.

In Step S1305, the recognition result integration unit 106 outputs thedocument recognition result 118.

The personal information image 113 is edited and transmitted to thecloud server 200 in the abovementioned configurations and operations,but the personal information image 113 does not necessarily need to betransmitted to the cloud server 200. In this case, the recognitionresult integration unit 106 acquires the document recognition result 118in accordance with the general recognition result 116 from the cloudserver 200 and the information based on the personal information image113. For example, the recognition result integration unit 106 canacquire the document recognition result 118 by performing the characterrecognition processing for the personal information image 113 andintegrating the recognition result thereof with the general recognitionresult 116 instead of the restored personal information 117. Note thatthe character recognition processing in the edge terminal 100 ispreferred to be simpler than the character recognition processingperformed by the cloud server 200. Also in this case, the informationamount (the number of characters and the like) of the informationentered in the personal information image 113 is less than theinformation amount entered in the document image 111, and hence thecharacter recognition processing can be performed with a necessaryaccuracy. The recognition result integration unit 106 may display thepersonal information image 113 on the output apparatus 503 and thenreceive the information entered in the personal information image 113 bythe input apparatus 502 from a user of the edge terminal 100 as thecharacter information. In this case, the recognition result integrationunit 106 can acquire the document recognition result 118 by integratingthe character information with the general recognition result 116.

When the personal information image 113 is not transmitted to the cloudserver 200 as above, the editing of the personal information image andthe restoration of the personal information do not necessarily need tobe performed, and hence the personal information editing unit 103 andthe personal information restoration unit 105 are not necessarilyneeded. In this case, it is possible for the main storage apparatus 504to store therein only the necessary programs. In other words, thepersonal information editing program 512, the personal informationrestoration program 513, and the like are not necessarily needed.

The embodiment described above describes this disclosure in detail, anddoes not limit this disclosure. For example, not all of the elements andthe combinations thereof described in the embodiment are necessarilyneeded as the solution of this disclosure, and the elements and thecombinations thereof can be removed or replaced with other elements, asappropriate.

Some of the abovementioned configurations and functions may beimplemented by hardware such as an integrated circuit. Some of theabovementioned configurations and functions may be implemented by aprogram. In this case, the program is recorded in a storage medium, anda processor included in a computer reads the program recorded in thestorage medium. Then, the configurations and functions are implementedby executing the read program. Therefore, the program and a recordingmedium on which the program is recorded are one embodiment of thisdisclosure. As the recording medium, for example, a flexible disk, aCD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a hard disk, an SSD, an optical disk, amagneto-optical disk, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memorycard, a ROM, and the like are used.

The abovementioned program can be implemented by a programming languageor a scripting language such as assembler, C/C++, Perl, Shell, PHP, orJava (registered trademark), for example.

The abovementioned program may be distributed over the communicationnetwork. In this case, the distributed program may be stored in storagemeans such as a hard disk or a memory of a computer or a recordingstorage medium such as a CD-RW and a CD-R, and the processor included inthe computer may execute the program stored in the storage means and therecording medium by reading the programs.

In the abovementioned embodiment, the described control lines and theinformation lines are control lines and information lines conceived tobe necessarily in terms of description, and not all of the control linesand information lines are necessarily described for the product. All ofthe configurations may be coupled to each other.

As described above, this disclosure includes the following matters.

A terminal apparatus 100 according to one aspect of this disclosure iscoupled to a character recognition processing apparatus 200 configuredto perform character recognition processing on an image and transmit arecognition result of the character recognition processing. The terminalapparatus 100 includes a separation unit 102 and a recognition resultintegration unit 106. The separation unit separates a target imagecontaining secret information into a secret information image 113containing the secret information and a general information image 112that does not contain the secret information on the basis of the targetimage 111, and transmits the general information image to the characterrecognition processing apparatus. The recognition result integrationunit receives a general recognition result 116 that is a recognitionresult of the character recognition processing for the generalinformation image from the character recognition processing apparatus,and acquires a target recognition result 118 that is a recognitionresult of the character recognition processing for the target image inaccordance with the general recognition result and information based onthe secret information image.

According to the abovementioned configuration, the general informationimage that does not contain the secret information separated from thetarget image is transmitted to the character recognition processingapparatus, and the target recognition result that is the recognitionresult of the character recognition processing for the target image isacquired in accordance with the general recognition result that is therecognition result of the character recognition processing for thegeneral information image. Therefore, the risk of the secret informationleaking can be reduced while using the highly-accurate characterrecognition processing performed by the character recognition processingapparatus. Therefore, the highly-accurate character recognitionprocessing can be performed at low cost and the risk of the secretinformation leaking can be reduced.

The terminal apparatus includes an editing unit 103 and a secretinformation restoration unit 105. The editing unit generates an editedimage 114 obtained by editing the secret information image and transmitsthe edited image 114 to the character recognition processing apparatus.The secret information restoration unit receives an editing recognitionresult 115 that is a recognition result of the character recognitionprocessing for the edited image from the character recognitionprocessing apparatus, and acquires a secret recognition result 117 thatis a recognition result of the character recognition processing for thesecret information image on the basis of the editing recognition result.The recognition result integration unit acquires a target recognitionresult by considering the secret recognition result to be informationbased on the secret information image.

According to the abovementioned configuration, the edited image obtainedby editing the secret information image containing the secretinformation is transmitted to the character recognition processingapparatus. Therefore, the highly-accurate character recognitionprocessing performed by the character recognition processing apparatuscan be also applied to the secret information while reducing the risk ofthe secret information leaking.

The editing unit generates a plurality of character images 114 a showinga plurality of characters contained in the secret information image asan edited image. Therefore, the secret information is separated into aplurality of images, and hence a case where one image containing theentire secret information is transmitted to the character recognitionprocessing apparatus does not occur. Therefore, the risk of the secretinformation leaking can be further reduced.

The editing unit transmits the plurality of character images to thecharacter recognition processing apparatus in a random order. Therefore,the risk of the secret information leaking can be further reduced.

The editing unit configures file names of the plurality of characterimages to random character strings. Therefore, the risk of the secretinformation leaking can be further reduced.

The target image contains definition information 700 indicating alocation of an area in the target image in which the secret informationis entered. The separation unit reads the definition information fromthe target image and separates the target image into the secretinformation image and the general information image on the basis of theread definition information. Therefore, the separation into the secretinformation image and the general information image can be accuratelyperformed.

The definition information is entered in the target image encoded into apredetermined format. Therefore, the appearance of the target image canbe improved and the definition information can be easily read.

The separation unit compares the target image and a reference image inwhich a location in which information is entered is known with eachother, acquires definition information indicating a location of an areain the target image in which the secret information is entered, andseparates the target image into the secret information image and thegeneral information image on basis of the acquired definitioninformation. The separation into the secret information image and thegeneral information image can be also performed in the target image thatdoes not contain the definition information, and hence the versatilitycan be improved.

The embodiment of this disclosure described above is an example fordescribing this disclosure, and is not intended to limit the scope ofthis disclosure to the embodiment. A person skilled in the art can carryout the present invention with other various aspects without departingfrom the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A terminal apparatus coupled to a characterrecognition processing apparatus, the character recognition processingapparatus configured to perform character recognition processing on atarget image and transmit a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing, the terminal apparatus comprising: a processorconfigured to: separate the target image containing secret informationinto a secret information image containing the secret information and ageneral information image that does not contain the secret informationon basis of the target image, and transmit the general information imageto the character recognition processing apparatus; receive a generalrecognition result that is a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing for the general information image from thecharacter recognition processing apparatus, and acquire a targetrecognition result that is a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing for the target image in accordance with thegeneral recognition result and information based on the secretinformation image; generate an edited image obtained by editing thesecret information image and transmit the edited image to the characterrecognition processing apparatus; and receive an editing recognitionresult that is a recognition result of the character recognitionprocessing for the edited image from the character recognitionprocessing apparatus, and acquire a secret recognition result that is arecognition result of the character recognition processing for thesecret information image on basis of the editing recognition result,wherein the processor acquires the target recognition result byconsidering the secret recognition result to be information based on thesecret information image.
 2. The terminal apparatus according to claim1, wherein the processor is further configured to generate a pluralityof character images showing a plurality of characters contained in thesecret information image as the edited image.
 3. The terminal apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured totransmit the plurality of character images to the character recognitionprocessing apparatus in a random order.
 4. The terminal apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured toconfigure file names of the plurality of character images to randomcharacter strings.
 5. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1,wherein: the target image contains definition information indicating alocation of an area in the target image in which the secret informationis entered; and the processor is further configured to read thedefinition information from the target image and separate the targetimage into the secret information image and the general informationimage on basis of the read definition information.
 6. The terminalapparatus according to claim 5, wherein the definition information isencoded into a predetermined format and is entered in the target image.7. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor isfurther configured to: compare the target image and a reference image inwhich a location in which information is entered is known with eachother; acquire definition information indicating a location of an areain the target image in which the secret information is entered; andseparate the target image into the secret information image and thegeneral information image on basis of the acquired definitioninformation.
 8. A character recognition system, comprising: a characterrecognition processing apparatus configured to perform characterrecognition processing; and a terminal apparatus coupled to thecharacter recognition processing apparatus, wherein: the terminalapparatus comprises a processor configured to: separate a target imagecontaining secret information into a secret information image containingthe secret information and a general information image that does notcontain the secret information on basis of the target image, andtransmit the general information image to the character recognitionprocessing apparatus; receive a general recognition result that is arecognition result of the character recognition processing for thegeneral information image from the character recognition processingapparatus, and acquire a target recognition result that is a recognitionresult of the character recognition processing for the target image inaccordance with the general recognition result and information based onthe secret information image; generate an edited image obtained byediting the secret information image and transmit the edited image tothe character recognition processing apparatus; and receive an editingrecognition result that is a recognition result of the characterrecognition processing for the edited image from the characterrecognition processing apparatus, and acquire a secret recognitionresult that is a recognition result of the character recognitionprocessing for the secret information image on basis of the editingrecognition result, wherein the processor acquires the targetrecognition result by considering the secret recognition result to beinformation based on the secret information image and wherein thecharacter recognition processing apparatus comprises a processorconfigured to receive the general information image from the terminalapparatus, perform the character recognition processing for the generalinformation image, and transmit the recognition result of the characterrecognition processing to the terminal apparatus.
 9. A characterrecognition method performed by a terminal apparatus coupled to acharacter recognition processing apparatus configured to performcharacter recognition processing on a target image and transmit arecognition result of the character recognition processing, thecharacter recognition method comprising: separating the target imagecontaining secret information into a secret information image containingthe secret information and a general information image that does notcontain the secret information on basis of the target image;transmitting the general information image to the character recognitionprocessing apparatus; receiving a general recognition result that is arecognition result of the character recognition processing for thegeneral information image from the character recognition processingapparatus; generating an edited image obtained by editing the secretinformation image and transmit the edited image to the characterrecognition processing apparatus; receiving an editing recognitionresult that is a recognition result of the character recognitionprocessing for the edited image from the character recognitionprocessing apparatus, and acquire a secret recognition result that is arecognition result of the character recognition processing for thesecret information image on basis of the editing recognition result; andacquiring a target recognition result that is a recognition result ofthe character recognition processing for the target image in accordancewith the general recognition result and information based on the secretinformation image, wherein the target recognition result is acquired byconsidering the secret recognition result to be information based on thesecret information image.